Talk about Curing Autism (and the rain)

It’s coming down lightly here in Arizona, so who knows what will become of the trip to Mesa today. Assuming we make the trip and play the game, the lineup will be:

Paul, LF

Carroll, SS

DeWitt, 2B

Johnson, CF

Giles, DH

Green, 3B

Ellis, C

Mitchell, 1B

Repko, RF

Kershaw, P

Meanwhile, last night Matt Kemp hosted his second annual poker event called Ante Up for Autism and it was a big success. It seems like every player in Arizona, from every team, was there, and a lot of money was raised for TACA (Talk About Curing Autism).

At my poker table were a couple huge Dodger fans, including one who is an ITD reader and we took great delight in knocking Bruce Bochy out of the tournament. In the end, I’m proud to say that I finished third at the final table, behind Chad Billingsley and a guy that had a huge stack of chips when they ended the tourney at 11 p.m. Chad’s final hand pushed him into the #2 spot which earned him a nice little trophy.

And for those Amazing Race fans out there, we even had to knock out the two professional poker players, Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho, as well as Flight Time and Big Easy, who were all there to support the great cause.

All in all, a very successful night for charity and Matt should be extremely proud of what he accomplished in support of his brother, Carlton, and every autistic child out there.

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32 Comments

Thanks for the update Josh!!! Like you said, it sounds like Matt did a fantastic job with this great cause last night. It is something that is becoming more and more prevalant in the classroom, in varying degrees, and it is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed more aggressively.

BTW Ethieraholics – if you didn’t get to listen or watch the game yesterday, Charlie and Rick announced that Andre, and his wife, Maggie, are expecting their second child. They didn’t mention when, but that is fantastic news.

truebluewill – It came from a post on facebook called “Diamond Notes” …………….

Following up on Russell Martin situation. According to Joe Torre, he will be out 4-6 weeks. ?They said I?ve got like a little strain, somewhere either in the lower abdomen or groin area,? he said. ?It?s not anything major. It?s more of a preventive type of thing.? Torre told Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times that he expe…cts Martin to miss opening day. The Dodgers have brought in AJ Ellis to take Martins place in camp.

Hate to say this, but our team is going to need a catcher and a shortstop. The declining Russell wasn’t much to look forward to anyway, but management didn’t do anything to provide a good replacement, unless you want to count Ausmus as one. I think that Raffy’s good years are all gone whether he’s injured or not, so we’ll struggle in the leadoff spot, and you all know what that means.

Good morning ITD!
Yes, it looks very wet outside and still raining. We forgot that Matt Kemp’s Ante for Autism event was last night. We thought about after we were coming back from dinner. We had talked about that we were going to look into going.
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I wanted to share this with you. Mike is a Mets fan and a Brooklyn Dodger fan who on one of his initial post wrote for the first time (and like he said, maybe the last time) his dislike for Los Angeles Dodgers like many Brooklynites but we have become friends thru the blogs. Mike is an amazing guy showing such love for the history of baseball and everything related to Brooklyn, Brooklyn Dodgers and his Mets. I throughly recomend his blog. When I discovered him, I added his blog link to mine.
.http://thebrooklyntrolleyblogger.mlblogs.com/archives/2010/03/thank-you-crzblues-dodger-blue-world.html
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Is raining outside but Mike througly made my day!
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On another note:
My Dodger beads that I bought yesterday were staining me (it was bleeding blue) so I pulled the Dodger shirt that I had bought to put the beads in the plastic bag. When I got to the hotel my Dodger shirt was stained because the sunblock empty into it. It sucks that because of the beads I ruined the shirt and it spilled into my Koufax book “a Lefty legacy.” Washed shirt but it did not come out.
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Oh well! I still had a great day yesterday.

Nelly ~ Where did you hear Russell is going to miss 4-6 weeks? The article on the Dodger website does not give a time frame for how long he will be out and makes it sound like the injury is minor. Is the 4-6 weeks official or is it your opinion.

Not to be pessimistic all the time (I used to be on the other side of the fence but my experiences in the last few years have changed me) but 4-6 weeks means hopefully we’ll see him by September.
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Wasn’t T. Abreu day to day then by mid May, then 4-6 weeks, then blah blah blah…
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It just seems as in the past our crack medical staff haven’t done a very good job with injuries.
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On the positive side I do really appreciate what the Dodgers players and organization (McCourts included) have and do for the community. I want my team to win a ring but if they do it while being classy & changing lives and helping those that need it, in my eyes that is why we are all here. Maybe not the ring part but all the other parts.
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& Hi Nelly. Sorry I missed you last night… I posted and then fell asleep.
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Take care all…

Good afternoon ITD boys and girls!
Wow, tough loss with Martin going down. I didn’t know what to think about his weight gain going into ST – I just hope it doesn’t plague him for the rest of the season. I know many of us (including myself) weren’t expecting a lot from Martin this year, but I was always hoping he would hit his stride like he used to. Maybe he still can; one can only hope. As for AJ Ellis, I think he’ll be fine with Ausmus as his backup. We definitely will get to see what he’s all about, and soon. I’m not going to worry – yet. It’s too soon to worry.

It’s weird for me to say this as Martin used to be my favorite player, but I hope Ellis steals the job from him like Martin did to navarro. Russ has completely fallen off the past couple years and his only contribution is handling the pitching staff well, but that doesn’t make up for being a black hole in the lineup that continually grounds out to 3rd base every time he’s up. Who knows if he’ll be back, in 08 Raffy was listed as day to day and missed over 4 months. Time to show what u can do A.J. GO DODGERS!

Typical…Repko gets a start and it’s rained out………… As for Martin, 4-6 weeks doesn’t sound minor to me. Any team needs a bit of luck in the health department to continue playoff runs. Dodgers have been very fortunate the last two seasons with injuries. This appears to be a bad omen…maybe it’s just Frank’s karma come home to roost.

Good evening ITD!
We sat in the hotel waiting for news but since there none of a rainout we headed to Mesa. I was talking with Tommy Davis there when they announced the rainout so we left but we headed to a local museum that was featuring “Play Ball!” The Cactus League Experience. I posted two pics in my latest blog, one for the Looney for Loney and one for the Ethierholics. When I get home I will unload some pics
Emmahttp://crzblue.mlblogs.com

Hey, ya’ll. I don’t know when my last post was. Seems like a couple of months. I don’t know if it’s more due to my increased depression of our current ownership or the complete lack of relevent news about the team to talk about.

Geez, when was the last time I was so unexcited about spring training? I’m thinking, “never before have I felt like this.” Thanks Frank. A most unimaginitive leadership.

“McCourt spoke to a group of reporters for almost 11 minutes during the Dodgers’ 8-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox at Camelback Ranch, but would not talk about the documents in recent filings that detailed the club’s plans to keep its payroll below what it was last year through 2018 while nearly doubling ticket prices.

Also left unanswered was why two of his sons drew a combined annual salary of $600,000 from the Dodgers, even though one works at Goldman Sachs and another attends graduate school at Stanford.

McCourt said he disagreed with the notion that he should respond to these reports because they affected the Dodgers’ paying customers.

“It’s just really impossible to try and deal with allegations and things like that and deal with every one of them because it’s an endless process,” he said.

McCourt said he did not think that whatever hit his image has taken in recent months would affect the way fans perceived the Dodgers’ future or the club’s ability to attract players. In fact, he would not even acknowledge that he had an image problem.

Asked if he was aware that there was a legion of Dodger fans who were upset with him, McCourt replied, “I think the fans want to focus on baseball.”

Frank, that itching sensation at the back of your neck is a direct result of having your head stuck in the sand. Either that, or you’ve managed the literal act of what so many of us accuse you of doing on a regular basis.

Personally, I would L-O-V-E to focus on baseball. You, however, have taken a lot of fun out of it for me. Boy, I can remember when we actually had a shot at attracting good ballplayers. Now I’m having a lot of trouble being excited about having some really good young players, because I KNOW that most (if not all) of them are going to be spending the prime years of their careers with other organizations. For example, even if Matt Kemp doesn’t get any better than last year, he’ll still be deserving of a type of contract that I can’t conceive of McCourt delivering.

And he won’t even give us the courteousy of answering valid and damning questions. Let me repeat that phenomenal answer, “It’s just really impossible to try and deal with allegations and things like that and deal with every one of them because it’s an endless process.”

“An endless process”? Really? Let me help.

Question: “What about this thing about keeping payroll below what it was last year through 2018 while nearly doubling ticket prices?
Answer:
(A) Totally false, my wife is lying.
(B) Mostly a lie, but as long as my accountants keep doctoring the books, my Taiwanese/Chinese/Japanese partners will never know.
(C) It’s true, deal with it.

Q: Why do two of your sons draw a combined annual salary of $600,000 from the Dodgers, even though neither one actually do a damned thing for us?”
(A) Totally false, my wife is lying.
(B) Mostly true, but it’s really a lot more.
(C) It’s true, deal with it.

See, it’s not that hard.

enchanted, remember the request you made to Josh to have McCourt come on here? Nice idea, but even if he did do something like that, the questions would look like an old Soviet election. Certainly nothing like we would ask.

Emma — While in Scottsdale you have to try to get to Don & Charlies. It’s a steak place near the stadium. Old town is also fun to explore. But Don & Charlies is awesome and you will see players & celeb’s there. I’m not sure if they do reservations or not but you should try to get one. If you can’t get in to eat just go in & enjoy the place as it’s amazing with all their baseball things. I saw Willie Mays there among many other players & coaches when I’ve been. Great food as well. Try the ribs!!
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Another fun place to go is an older steakhouse called the Pink Pony. It’s also in Old Town and is where the players of years ago would go. It’s also fun due to the history. Their prime rib is very thick and good.
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For dessert I suggest an ice cream sunday at the Sugar Bowl. It’s an old fashioned ice cream parlor and it was referred to many times in the old comic strip Family Circus as the guy who did that cartoon lived down there.
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The Scottsdale mall is pretty nice as well, but you must hit up one or all of those places. Have fun!!!

I just looked & Don & Charlie’s has a website & the do reservations via Open Table. You should try the place out. It’s fun.
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The other place that is a fun time is the Rawhide.
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It’s an old western town that is a restaurant and the have cowboys riding around and getting in shoot outs, etc… They also have a website.
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Have fun. I know I wish I was there!!!
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Next year Wifey & I will be!

Good Night Collie!!! Thanks for all the tips. My son is playing in a tournament in Peoria this summer (I know summer in Arizona playing baseball doesn’t seem so pleasant). I will remind you to remind me of these places when the time comes :)

What’s funny about all this Eric is that Frank (and those that work for him) are the only ones that think this divorce isn’t going to affect the Dodgers as an organization. There is not a single entity involved in baseball that thinks differently than we (the fans) do.

Buenos Dias ITD!
Sparkle:
I call them Dodger beads ’cause they are the same Dodger blue color but if you look closer to them they are small baseballs. I love them! but one of my friends noticed that my neck had blue all over! I was bleeding Dodger blue! I don’t recomend that you spray sunblock when you wear them.
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Collie,
thank you much for the recomendations at Scottsdale! I just made the notes in my blackberry. Neither one of us have been to the Jint ballpark so we are looking forward to that. Maybe we can take a quick look at the restaurant as we drive back to LA right after the game. God willing, we will try to come back the last weekend so we’ll try the restaurants then. The ice cream we can do today. We wish we could stay here longer.
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Josh!
You are the best! thanks for answering my question!
Emmahttp://crzblue.mlblogs.com

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